What happens if you breathe in diesel exhaust?
Breathing in diesel exhaust can cause lung irritation and/or an allergic reaction causing asthma (wheezing and difficult breathing), or making pre-existing asthma worse. Other symptoms may include feeling lightheaded, headache, or nausea. Long term exposure may lead to serious health effects.
Can diesel exhaust fumes make you sick?
Diesel exhaust is a mixture of gases and particulates produced during the combustion of diesel fuel. Workers exposed to diesel exhaust face the risk of health effects ranging from irritation of the eyes and nose, headaches and nausea, to respiratory disease and lung cancer.
What are the health effects of short term exposure to diesel exhaust?
Short term exposure to high concentrations of diesel exhaust can irritate the eyes, nose, throat and lungs and cause light-headedness, coughing, phlegm and nausea. Very high levels of diesel exhaust exposure can lead to asphyxiation from carbon monoxide poisoning.
What does exhaust fumes do to your body?
Working near exhaust fumes exposes you to poisonous carbon monoxide (CO) gas, which is present in large amounts in vehicle exhaust fumes. Overexposure to this odorless and colorless gas can cause death. Even mild exposure to CO can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea and fatigue.
How do you recover diesel fumes?
Treatment for sudden high exposure to DE includes immediate removal from exposure. Oxygen administration (which may include hyperbaric oxygen therapy if significant CO poisoning is confirmed) or other treatments may be necessary depending on what is found during your exam.
How do you check for diesel fumes?
When monitoring carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, real time gas monitoring instruments provide an immediate indication of diesel fume levels. Other battery-powered pumps and various sampling media (adsorbent tubes and filters) can also be used to monitor the other components.
Can diesel vapors ignite?
In its liquid form, that is true for the most part. In its vapor form, diesel is very dangerous and can catch fire (or explode) easily in the presence of an accelerant such as fan air or oxygen. Diesel vapors can ignite and explode when mixed with air. The vapors are explosive over a wide vapor-to-air mixture range.
Can the smell of diesel be harmful?
Breathing in diesel fumes can affect your health and exposure to the fumes can cause irritation of your eyes or respiratory tract. There is some evidence that repeated exposure to diesel fumes over a period of about 20 years may increase the risk of lung cancer.
Are diesel vapors harmful?
Breathing in diesel fumes can affect your health and exposure to the fumes can cause irritation of your eyes or respiratory tract. However, prolonged exposure to diesel fumes, in particular to any blue or black smoke, could lead to coughing, chestiness and breathlessness.
How long does it take for diesel to evaporate?
Diesel fuel is most often a light, refined petroleum product. Small diesel spills will usually evaporate and disperse within a day or less. This is particularly true for typical spills from a fishing vessel (500- 5,000 gallons), even in cold water. Thus, seldom is there any oil on the surface for responders to recover.